Napoleon’s Downfall1807 - 1815

A Family Affair

• Jerome Bonaparte King of Westphalia.• Joseph Bonaparte King of Spain• Louise Bonaparte King of Holland• Pauline Bonaparte Princess of Italy• Napoléon Francis Joseph

Charles (son) King of Rome

• Elisa Bonaparte Grand Duchess of Tuscany

• Caroline Bonaparte Queen of Naples

Peninsular Campaign

Spain Portugal

France 1806: ContinentalSystem

• Portugal did not comply with the Continental System.

• France wanted Spain’s support to invade Portugal.

• Spain refused, they were tired of Napoleon “bossing” them around.

The Spanish Ulcer

• An idea called Nationalism – the notion that a nation would be created with defined borders, a singular language, and ultimately people would identify themselves via their nation, instead of their social class or religion.

• The Spanish started to build up a high level of patriotism for their own country, and wanted nothing to do with the French.

• As a result Napoleon invaded Spain.

The Spanish Ulcer• Napoleon tricked the

Spanish king and prince to come to France, where he imprisoned them.

• He proclaimed his brother, Joseph, to be the new king of Spain.

• He stationed over 100,000 French troops in Madrid.

• On May 2, 1808 the Spanish rose up in rebellion.

• French troops fired on the crowd in Madrid the next day.

The Spanish Ulcer• Napoleon poured 500,000

troops into Spain over the next few years.

• But, the French generals still had trouble subduing the Spanish population and their revolt towardsFrance.

• The British viewed this uprising as an opportunity to weaken Napoleon.• They moved an army into

Portugal to protect that country and to aid the Spanish guerillas.

• After five (5) long years of savage fighting, French troops were finally pushed back across the Pyrennes Mountains and out of Spain.

The Surrender of MadridMay, 1809by Goya

A Turning Point

By 1809 the Prussian/Austrian Army had transformed its army into an exact replica of the French army that beat them at Ulm and Austerlitz.

May 21–22 1809 Napoleon wanted to make a move to push the Prussian’s further east and into the Ottoman Empire.

Archduke Karl (Charles), leading the newly formed Austrian Army came head to head with the French Army in a town called Aspern, located in Austria – AKA battle of Aspern-Essling.

PrussiaFrance 1809:Napoleon

Exits Prussia

A Turning Point Archduke Karl and his Austrian

Army, suffered as many losses, captured and wounded soldiers as that of the French.Despite heavy losses Austria ended up winning at Aspern.

Napoleon retreats and heads west and north towards a town called Wagram.

Wagram ended up being one of the bloodiest and most terrifying battles ever in the history of Europe.

While the French ended up barely, and we do mean barely, winning, Napoleon was heard saying about Wagram, “war was never like this: neither prisoners nor guns; this day will have no results.”

Map of Aspern, Wagram

Map of the location of Aspern and Wagram

The “Big Blunder” - Russia

Prior to the battle of Friedland, Napoleon had promised he would never attack Russia as they had a peace treaty – as we know he broke that promise.

After Friedland, Russia agreed to stop trading with the British – but they broke that promise and as a result Napoleon decided to invade Russia.

RussiaFrance 1812: Breaking Promises

The “Big Blunder” - Russia

• In July, 1812 Napoleon led his Grand Army of 600,000+ men eastward across central Europe and into Russia.• The Russians avoided a direct

confrontation with Napoleon.• They retreated to a town near Moscow. In doing so they

drew the French into the interior of Russia.• The Russian nobles abandoned their estates and houses

and burned their crops and land to the ground. • They left the French with no way to live off the land and

to operate far from their supply bases in Eastern Prussia.

The “Big Blunder” - Russia

The French army made it all the way to Borodino – a city outside of Moscow.

The Russian’s were ready and waiting for the French Army to enter Borodino.

The battle at Borodino, September 12, 1812, was equally as horrific as the battle of Wagram. Hundreds of thousands of men died on both sides.

The Russian’s despite retreating, could claim victory as they dealt a stunning blow to the French Army.

Napoleon, stubborn to get ultimate victory forged a head to Moscow to declare victory…

The “Big Blunder” - Russia

By September 14, 1812 Napoleon had reached Moscow, hoping to find the Russians waving the white flag.

Instead, they found a desolate city, burning to the ground. No one there, no food, no wine, no money, nothing…. nothing but the oncoming of winter.

Moscow Burning to the Ground, September 1812

The “Big Blunder” - Russia

Now deep in Russian territory, winter approaching and nothing to live off of, Napoleon decided to head back to Eastern Prussia.

As they headed back, pockets of Russian fighters would attack the French Army with no notice, killing hundreds and thousands of French military men, injuring soldiers and then disappearing.

This tactic was used all the way along the trek back to Eastern Prussia.

The French Military had no choice but to leave their wounded on the ground to freeze to death or die of their injuries.

The “Big Blunder” - Russia

To eat, they would cut up their dead horses and cut out the meat, barring the meat wasn’t completelyfrozen and unable to cut.

By the time the French Army reached Eastern Prussia, they weredepleted, many men had fled to go home, they were starving and ultimately they looked like a sad bunch of men marching out of Russia.

The French Army was now the antithesis of the grand 600,000+ troops that marched into Russia.

With only 9,000 men left by the time they got to Eastern Prussia, Napoleon left his men, his defeated army, and went back to France.

Map of Borodino

Location of Borodino – note that current geography has Belarus and Latvia, that part was East Prussia and Polish territory.

The 6th Coalition Britain, Russia. Spain, Portugal, Prussia, Austria, Sweden, smaller German states

France 1813-1814:

Napoléon’sDefeat

Battle of Leipzig 16–19 October 1813 was the

battle of Leipzig. This was the longest, and largest battle prior to WWI ever in Europe.

Leipzig was a town in Prussia. Napoleon wanted to re-gain

territory he had lost in Prussia, and wanted to keep control of all the loading docks in Northern Europe.

The 6th Coalition made way for Leipzig with a solid plan of attack. They were to use shock tactics, carefully planned out strategic attacks, and use of maps to defeat Napoleon.

Battle of Leipzig

Napoleon, un-sure where his opponent would be attacking from was unable to counter attack with his form of a shock tactic.

He soon realized by the third day that he was surrounded and had to flee.

Like he did in Russia, he left his army to die against the 6th coalition and headed back to Paris on the 19th of October.

Map of Leipzig

A long time ago…

In 1807 Napoleon had total control of Europe – but he wanted more.

In 1809 he lost in Aspern-Essling and Wagram, in 1811 he lost in Spain (and by extension Portugal), in 1812 he invaded Russia and lost, in 1813 he fought in Leipzig (Prussia) and lost.

March 30-31, 1814 for the first time in 400 years a foreign power invaded France, Napoleon with nothing left, lost in the battle of Paris.

Abdication

After the loss in Paris, Napoleon gave up his throne and was exiled to the Island of Elba, near Italy.

This ended the reign of Napoleon….. Or did it?